Although academic success among diverse community college students requires effective reading skills, providing support for struggling readers is becoming increasingly more difficult. The problem addressed in this quantitative study was that due to Assembly Bill 705, prohibiting colleges from offering remedial courses without data to substantiate…

Research Findings: Shared book reading is important for children's early literacy development. Although there is an increasing number of dual language learners, few studies have examined families' shared book reading practices in their two languages. The current study examined Hispanic parents' beliefs and practices during shared reading in…

Many students, especially English language learners (ELLs), struggle when they write. This study examined the various writing strategies 3 Spanish-speaking bilingual student teachers used to help their elementary school ELL students write. This was a case study that looked at how these student teachers used their primary language, among other…

School districts that have adopted the 3Ls™ approach to provide rigorous instruction for English learners (ELs) have, invariably, had to make a case for what this approach offers, how it reflects best practices in English language development (ELD) instruction, and how it meets the needs of English learners. They have also had to make explicit…

This study assesses the extent to which machine learning techniques can be used to predict question quality. An algorithm based on textual complexity indices was previously developed to assess question quality to provide feedback on questions generated by students within iSTART (an intelligent tutoring system that teaches reading strategies). In…

This pilot study examined multilingual university students' willingness to engage in voluntary extensive reading (ER) of books after they received training. The research questions were whether training appeared to promote self-efficacy, motivation for the task, use of metacognitive strategies, and independent reading. University freshmen in an ESL…

This study examines the potential benefits of rhyme on young children's word retention during shared reading. In two experiments, 2- to 4-year-old children heard their parent read either a rhymed or non-rhymed version of the same animal story, and were then tested on how many animal names they subsequently recognized from the story in Experiment 1…

Standardized testing is widely utilized to determine the levels of children's learning achievement. There has been a constant debate on how accurately standardized tests reflect children's achievement. Many practice teachers struggle with teaching to the test to meet the national criteria. An elementary teacher questioned the accuracy of the…

This qualitative study focused on teacher's beliefs about students' motivation for reading and how teachers act on those beliefs in classrooms. After conducting five focus groups of teachers, researchers analyzed and interpreted transcripts to identify major themes. While instructional processes mediated the building of relationships between…

The primary goal of this research is to better understand my students' reading orientations--what they believe it means to be a successful reader. I also seek to identify the relationship between those beliefs and my teaching. The data come primarily from six focal students in my second-grade classroom in an urban public charter elementary school…

This study examined the effects of professional development on strengthening the efficacy and civic engagement of college students tutoring diverse K-5th grade English Language Learners in an urban community. A mixed methods approach including pre-and post-surveys, focus groups, weekly reflections, and supervisor observations revealed tutors'…

Metacognitive, or thinking, strategies enable people to think critically, predict outcomes, implement strategies, and thus solve problems. A total of 312 students in 10th-grade regular, pre-AP, and EL English classes responded to questions taken from the California STAR test and reported the metacognitive strategies they used in responding to the…

The field of teacher research is increasingly including self-study as a valid and reliable method with which teachers can study and improve practice. In this self-study, I develop knowledge of myself as a nonfiction reader and use it to inform my instruction. Guided by the work of Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko, and Hurwitz (1999), I use…

At Hoover High School in San Diego, California, the hard work of learning and refining teaching practices began and continues through professional learning communities (PLCs). The teachers and administrators see PLCs not simply as another reason to attend meetings, but as a means of engaging with their colleagues about the implementation of a…

The study aimed to examine teachers' and students' views on the impact of the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) on students' college readiness and on teaching practices. Literature in the areas of college readiness, critiques of the English curriculum at the secondary level, and a review of research on the effects of ERWC are…